Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, Jim Florio was a good friend of mine, a great guy. As I mentioned during the debate on the gentleman's previous Superfund amendment, I certainly appreciate the gentleman's support for robust funding for the Superfund program, particularly the cleanup program. I agree, we need to make progress to address the backlog of 1,300 sites, as the gentleman mentioned, on the national priorities list, and the bill proposes to do so with the $40.1 million increase for cleanup work. However, the gentleman's amendment proposes to increase EPA's enforcement budget by $15.2 million, offset by other reductions within the Superfund account. Presumably, those reductions would come at the expense of the cleanup program. So I reluctantly oppose the amendment and urge my colleagues to vote ``no.'' Certainly, I sympathize with what the gentleman is trying to do, but we just don't agree to the offset. I urge opposition to the amendment. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.”